CONTROL OF BACTERIAL DISEASES 241 



finally discovering that the same night nurse tended the infected cases 

 and new infections in a distant -ward) ceased completely when the 

 nurses began disinfecting their hands after attending each case. 

 HOLT, New York Medical Journal, Vol. LXXXI (1905), p. 521 



Men detailed as hospital orderlies were, after they had performed 

 the duty of emptying bedpans, seen to go directly to their meals 

 without washing their hands, and even to distribute food to their 

 comrades. 1 CHAPIX, p. 120 



Thus, at one of the finest hospitals in this country, with separate 

 wards for scarlet fever and diphtheria, a considerable number of cases 

 have arisen in the general wards. The germs were supposed to be air- 

 borne, as it was said there was no other possible avenue of infection. 

 When I saw the head nurse lick her finger to facilitate turning the bed- 

 side charts of diphtheria patients, I suspected that the principles of 

 medical asepsis had not been entirely mastered. CHAPIX, p. 165 



. The superintendent of another hospital invited another visitor and 

 myself to eat ice cream from the same spoon with himself, which spoon 

 was then replaced in the freezer which was to supply the wards. I was 

 most of all impressed with the fact that at the International Congress on 

 Tuberculosis in 1908 a large number of the readers of papers moistened 

 their fingers with their tongues when turning the pages, and in each of 

 the sections only one drinking glass was provided for all the speakers ; 

 and this continued for a day or two without protest. CHAPIX, p. 165 



The following observations were made by the author 

 in 1915. 



1. Stopped to buy candy in order to observe "home manufacture"; 

 saw elderly man molding nut drops lick off his fingers and go on mold- 

 ing. Threw candy away. 



2. Asked for pound of preserved ginger at a fine confectionery store ; 

 waitress clawed it out of tray with hands. Paid for it and threw it 

 away. 



3. Called for glass of milk at railway-station lunch counter; swarthy 

 foreigner removed cap from quart jar, put his dirty hand over bottle, 

 turned it bottom up and shook it violently, scraped palm of hand on 

 mouth of jar, and poured out the glass. He was told to drink it 

 himself. 



1 From a description of an army typhoid epidemic. 



